Rachmaninoff’s Second with the Pasadena Symphony

Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, if you haven’t heard it, sounds like this. Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto, like this. And that’s just on YouTube. For whatever mysterious reason, art experienced firsthand—not through recordings and reproductions—has the capacity to affect us in ways that copies do not. Something about the physical proximity of the artifact—you might call it an aura.

The potential for this strange magic is but one of many reasons you might consider seeing the Pasadena Symphony perform Rachmaninoff’s and Liszt’s Seconds. Other reasons include guest conductor Maximiano Valdes, a Chilean of great repute, and guest pianist Chu-Fang Huang, who, in addition to having a delightful name, is a recent recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, which is a Very Big Deal in the music world. Chu-Fang, as you might expect, will go virtuoso all over that Piano Concerto. You might even say she will tear it up. With her teeth.